Parque Ansaldo, evolution and involution of a marginal neighborhood in San Juan de Alicante (Spain)

Abstract

At the end of the 1970’s, Parque Ansaldo was an urban complex of 612 apartments in-tended for middle class families in San Juan, a municipality of the province of Alicante (Spain). At the beginning of the 1980’s, the neighborhood initiates its degradation proc-ess and in the 1990’s it is estimated to have about 3000 de facto residents composed of gypsies, « Payos » (non gypsies) and people from the Maghreb, becoming one of the most emblematic cases of social and urban exclusion in Spain. During these years, the problems of Parque Ansaldo have a huge impact in the province of Alicante. This article reviews the evolution and involution of this neighborhood analyzing the sequence of events which led to its deterioration and to an incredibly complex social and legal situa-tion which had to be faced until its final demolition in 2004.